Submitted by John… To go to Central Asia was an amazing privilege. I still can’t believe I got to go and with my closest and best friends. I was last there 10 years ago, 1 year out of college and bubbling with enthusiasm and excitement. Now, 10 years later, many pounds heavier, married and with 2 kids my life has drastically changed. But once I arrived there, I had such a nostalgic feel of almost like home. When we first began planning for our trip and trying to fulfill the vision of making a Sensory Room for autistic children and those who are physically disabled, i wasn’t sure how i would be able to help. I knew next to nothing of what a Sensory Room should look like and hadn’t even been in one before. And although George was very experienced in sensory rooms and Kevin was an architect and we had artistic help from Richard Dongses, the truth is that none of us had ever built one of these. But that didn’t discourage any of us and the orphanage director still trusted us to pioneer the way in building this room.
As we gathered our gear at NL, we had tons of fuzzy balls, plush toys, spongy things, exercise balls, floor mats, and speakers, ipods, track lighting and such. We filled 20 bags/boxes at about 50 pounds each equaling almost 1/2 ton of gear. I saw the pictures and the vision that Kevin and George had in mind for the room and I wondered if we would really be able to build all that and in just 6 days. We had over 2 1/2 days of traveling round trip so we knew we had to really pack in our work days. And as soon as we arrived we hit the ground running – unpacking all our gear, setting up track lighting, speakers, amps, transformers, lighting/fabric grids, painting, drilling, screwing, designing, re-designing, etc… we worked side by side with foremen and workers from the transition center who were such humble and helpful people. They were so willing to help us and even accommodated their schedules around ours b/c we were here for just a few days. One of the lead foreman lives 1.5 hours away and so he made the early trek leaving his home by 6am or earlier and sometimes leaving after 10pm. This was just a snapshot of the kind of humble and servant-like hearts who were giving it their all.
Before we even arrived many of the workers had begun doing some serious work – installing about 20 thin trees by mounting them into the concrete floor and ceiling, welding a 12 ft whale out of re-bars and covering it with foam, building a large wooden platform with sloped ramps and steps to mimic a mountainous area. We were amazed and then we began to drill out holes for speakers and amps and transformers and then mounting track-lighting into the dropped dry-wall ceiling and then some others were taking 1×1 wood pieces to make a grid that we would drop about 6 inches from the ceiling. We started to paint the walls several shades of blue in the ocean room to mimic water depth, green ceilings for the forest area and then one guy cut out a sponge the size of a large leaf and began painting patterned leaves on the ceiling. We painted green grass like rolling hills and a blue sky and made a white picket fence. We installed wooden swings, bag swings. some of the workers started making a turtle pond and then we took acrylic tubes and sandpapered them down to make a frosted coating to give a really cool effect when you put some Ikea lights in them, which we hung over the turtle pond. We made jelly fish out of rope lights, clear plastic umbrellas and fabric, which we draped over the umbrellas. And I saw my brothers and sisters struggling – never giving up – to make something creative with our given materials. They really labored hard out of love for the children and all the people who would be working there. man, that inspired me.
I still can’t believe we endeavored on this project. But then I thought of how this is such a value I’ve learned here at our church. Whether it was GLIVE or building at Sierra Lodge I’ve always been taught a can-do attitude from my friends like Tim and my leaders like Pastor Ed. Not only did they give me the can-do attitude but they gave me the skills to carry out all that we did. Whether it was knowing how to use a drill, the difference b/w a regular drill bit and a masonry drill bit and how to anchor screws in or how to do certain kinds of cuts or even learning how to measure wood cuts properly taking into account things like blade width. They were the ones who would trust me to do the electrical wiring for Sierra Lodge and learning about single-phase or three-phase and 220v or 110v. They were the ones who would just direct me to build the trailer shed, which I had never done and yet is still standing today. Working on all of these projects has given me the skills and the confidence to tackle many challenges. Even though I knew nothing about making a sensory room I knew there were others who knew more than me and I could just help out wherever needed. I took what I knew and had learned and tried to apply it to where I could help. As I was working I was so thankful for Sierra Lodge and all the projects that we’ve endeavored over the years. There’s no waste and I was so thankful I could help out in some way.
When I finally looked at all we did I wish we could have done more but then we had actually accomplished more than I could have imagined and I was so thankful to God. I just caught a glimpse of God’s heart for the children as I thought about how they would enjoy all that we were trying to make. Each time we finished some part of the room we were filled with joy and would share with each other what we made and would be like “look” this is so cool. And we just couldn’t wait for all those in the future who would be able to benefit from this room. I don’t think there’s much else that can inspire me to give my all like this. Working hard and living for others is so much more meaningful and worth it in the end. And doing it with some of your best friends…well, it just doesn’t get any better than this.
My peers and I just came back from a week in Central Asia where we helped build a sensory room for the new transition center that is being built there by one of our friends. This transition center is meant to provide a place for the children of the orphanage to go to after they reach adult age and avoid the state-run institutes that have horrible conditions. The sensory room will be a therapy room for children with disabilities where they can receive stimulation through the different colors, shapes, textures, and sounds in the room. We created a five-section room, each section representing a different natural environment: grass, ocean, forest, desert, and mountain. Our job was to help make these sections come alive through paint, lights, and various decorations.
We basically went there with the mindset to be servants and do whatever was necessary to make the room become a reality. We each spent thousands of dollars on airfare, took time off of work, and traveled to the opposite side of the globe (exactly 12 hours time difference from California) in order to serve in whatever way we could to help make this sensory room a reality. Most of us on the trip didn’t have any extraordinary artistic or construction skills. But we just did whatever was necessary to implement the design. That included painting walls and ceilings, constructing grid work for the ceiling to hang lights and fabrics from, installing speakers, hanging seats and swings from the ceiling, etc. Each person just moved on from project to project, doing whatever was needed. For example, after I painted the white picket fences for the grass section, it needed time to dry. So I helped out in another area, like hanging blue fabric from the ceiling to make waves in the ocean section. Everyone moved from area to area, job to job, working on whatever needed help at that moment. What helped a lot was the experience we gained working with power tools, wood, paint, and other materials on previous projects such as the Sierra Lodge construction and the props and costumes for Thanksgiving Celebrations and G-Lives. Just from having worked a lot on these past events gave us familiarity with using saws, drills, paints, and fabrics.
We didn’t have much time there. So we tried to maximize our time by working most days from 8am to about 8pm. We also had great fellowship working side by side with the local hired workers who painted, drilled, and constructed with us. I remember this one faithful grandmother who faithfully painted the ceilings and walls for over two days, standing for hours at a time on wobbly, makeshift, wooden tables in order to paint the ceiling. The hard work and dedication was infectious to all who were there, as we were united with the common goal of creating this room for the children. We had great fellowship, despite the fact that we had little in common with them and could hardly communicate with them.
it’s amazing how God used all of your combined skills. indeed, this is the mystery of God – people coming together to be the church so that we can accomplish his good will together.
the room looks great and im sure its going to be a place of much joy and learning for the children. listening and reading these sharings brought tears to my eyes because a room such as this must be rare in central america. im really inspired to make the most of my time and learn valuable skills that might be needed in the future.
can we add more pictures for people to see? its amazing the work and love that was poured out into this room.
Thank ou for your sharing! I was so amazed and inspired by the stories about the precious brothers and sisters you met
This past week (first week of June), i had the honor/privilege of going to help build the sensory room in the transition center for special needs children. As we worked on the sensory room for autistic children, i came to realize that simple skills like sawing, measuring, drilling, nailing that i had done during Sierra Lodge workdays were very handy . Also good, clear communication with other workers and project managers (George, Kevin Han) was very important.
Also, before we left: the experience of being on previous mission teams was helpful because we were familiar on how to pack the materials needed for construction and also measure and weigh them. We were able to pack up most of the materials in the immigration bags and some boxes all in 1 worknight.
When I saw the fellow workers and other brothers and sisters putting their shoulder into their tasks, it really motivated everyone else to work hard as well. When energy was running low, all we had to do was watch brothers like one of the foreman, who didn’t take a break until his job was done. Another example of the servant-like attitude that was everyone frequently asking one another “what else can i do for you?”.
Thus, probably more important than the skills themselves is the attitude that the whole team brought. Everyone was willing to do whatever was asked of them. No one complained, or said that is not their ‘position’ or that the task was too menial for them. When we all had this kind of ‘one mind, one heart’ in trying to execute each task, it multiplied the process. It was a great blessing for me to serve our precious brothers/sisters.